In many regional country town water supplies the only economical way that hazardous chemicals can be delivered to water treatment plants is by portable chemical containers (20 to 40 liter capacity). More often than not, a chemical metering pump, which accurately meters the required amount of chemical into the water, needs many times the capacity of a single container and therefore a vat is used in which the chemical is stored. The main problems associated with manually handling the chemical from the portable containers to the vats is that it is a slow, laborious and hazardous task for treatment plant operators. Whilst a number of methods have been introduced to reduce the time and risks involved, the exercise of “double handling” of the liquid chemical still remains a significant problem.
Other users of hazardous liquid chemicals, such as farmers, who also have a need to accurately meter a wide range of chemicals into water, also have major problems with this “double handling” process. Here again, a number of initiatives have been proposed to reduce the time and risks involved in transferring hazardous chemicals from portable containers into vats and tanks. These initiatives include battery-operated transfer pumps, purpose-built stands with special chemical syphons and innovative vortex systems, all of which improve the process, but do not remove the “double handling” problem.